Obama Releases Another Terrorist Viper

From Bill Rogio at The Long War Journal:

The US has released the leader of an Iranian-backed Shia terror group behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007.

The five American heros, shown, were (from top) Private First Class Shawn Falter, 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz, Private Johnathon Millican, Captain Brian S. Freeman, and Specialist Johnathan Bryan Chism (photos courtesy of Doctor Zero at The Greenroom).

According to Allahpundit at Hot Air, after Qais Khazali started "his own little mini-Hezbollah" called the "League of the Righteous" in Iran, he took his outfit to Karbala, Iraq where he coordinated the kidnapping and murders:

U.S. troops caught up to Khazali two months later and captured him and his brother; the ID cards of several dead American soldiers were recovered at the scene. No less a figure than David Petraeus went on to blame the Karbala raid squarely on Khazali’s outfit and accused Iran’s Quds Force — the creme de la creme of the Revolutionary Guard, responsible for assisting Iranian proxy jihadis like Hezbollah in other countries — of bankrolling the whole thing.

And now, after three years in U.S. custody, he’s free.

As Rogio reported:

Qais Qazali, the leader of the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous, was set free by the US military and transferred to Iraqi custody in exchange for the release of British hostage Peter Moore, US military officers and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

[snip]

Moore and four members of his personal bodyguard were kidnapped at the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May 2007 by a group that calls itself the Islamic Shia Resistance, which is in fact a front for the League of the Righteous. The group had always insisted that Qais, his brother Laith, and other members of the Asaib al Haq be released in exchange for Moore and the others. Three of Moore’s bodyguards were executed while in custody, and the fourth is thought to have been murdered as well.

“This was a deal signed and sealed in British and American blood,” a US military officer told The Long War Journal. “We freed all of their leaders and operatives; they [the League of the Righteous] executed their hostages and sent them back in body bags. And we’re supposed to be happy about it.”

Khazali, still a member of the "League of the Righteous," is going home to a hero's welcome in Iraq to take up his new career as political leader. His brother and more than 100 other members of the League, already released, await him. From Rogio's post:

“We let a very dangerous man go, a man whose hands are stained with US and Iraqi blood,” a military officer said. “We are going to pay for this in the future."

It used to be that the U.S. didn't negotiate with terrorist kidnappers. But that was before Obama.

In 1986, about the time Obama that was setting up in Chicago, Ronald Reagon was signing an executive order prohibiting concessions to hostage takers. News of this might not have reached Obama or his Obamatons, but some Americans do remember. As Dr. Zero noted, "Republican Senators Jeff Sessions and Jon Kyl have already sent a letter to the Obama Administration" reminding him of the U.S.A.'s long-standing policy not to deal with hostage-takers.

With the New Year holiday behind us, more Republican congressmen will doubtless be right behind Sessions and Kyl with their own hard questions. It’s even possible some Democrats will join them, now that they’re finished with midnight votes to take over the health-care system, and desperately need to fool their constituents into thinking they’re “moderates” who care about national security.

Someday, some of these Democrats are going to be dealing with the rising-star Iraqi terrorist-turned-politician that they've just released back into the vipers' den, like they're now dealing with the Iranian Ahmadinejad, in 1979 an alleged leader of the kidnapping of 53 Americans held hostage for 444 days.

Hat tip: There's My Two Cents
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